Speaker of the House John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and their Republican colleagues have decided to ring in the New Year with a new round of virtual assaults on women, minorities and immigrants.

After subjecting the nation to its latest obstructionism masked as political theater in the waning days of 2012 and the early hours of 2013—otherwise known as the short-term solutions to scale the "fiscal cliff”—the House Republican leadership quickly adjourned without reauthorizing the Violence against Women Act. VAWA has been “reauthorized without fanfare since then-Senator Joe Biden spearheaded its passage in 1994,” notes The Atlantic.

The Senate version would “have extended domestic violence protections to 30 million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, undocumented immigrants and Native American women. No surprise that the all-male and all-White House Republican leadership are opposed to expanding protections for victims of domestic violence

On the other hand, the GOP found the time and money to continue defending the Defense of Marriage Act—a losing battle to preserve a retrograde, 1950s version of what marriage and relationships should look like.